Dark Paradise
by VictoriaGrant
Summary: Song fic, inspired by Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey. Starts the night before the 11th pilgrimage and is slightly AU, paring will eventually be Wash/Taylor with mentions of most other characters.
1. Chapter 1

Dark Paradise ( by Lana Del Rey)

All my friends tell me I should move on

I'm lying in the ocean, singing your song

That's how you sang it

Loving you forever, can't be wrong

Even though you're not here, won't move on

That's how we played it

And there's no remedy for memory your face is

Like a melody, it won't leave my head

Your soul is haunting me and telling me

That everything is fine

But I wish I was dead

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side

All my friends ask me why I stay strong

Tell 'em when you find true love it lives on

That's why I stay here

And there's no remedy for memory your face is

Like a melody, it won't leave my head

Your soul is haunting me and telling me

That everything is fine

But I wish I was dead

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

But that there's no you, except in my dreams tonight,

I don't wanna wake up from this tonight

There's no relief, I see you in my sleep

And everybody's rushing me, but I can feel you touching me

There's no release, I feel you in my dreams

Telling me I'm fine

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side

Everytime I close my eyes

It's like a dark paradise

No one compares to you

But that there's no you, except in my dreams tonight,

I don't wanna wake up from this tonight.

* * *

**The story is inspired by the song `Dark Paradise´ by Lana Del Rey, I listened to the song and had this idea of Taylor dreaming about Wash and this was the result.**

The first chapter is written from Taylor´s POV, not sure I´ll stick to that in later chapters, I´ll have to see what happens, the timeline is season one, starting before the season finale and it´s slightly AU, including most characters.

Wash and Taylor aren´t in a romantic relationship in the beginning, though knowing me there´s a good chance that´ll change at some point- probably won´t be able to resist.

_I´m still working on the last chapter of ´In Between´, can´t seem to get it right but I´ll finish the story with style- in time ;)_

* * *

Taylor woke with a start.

For a moment he couldn´t quite comprehend why he would be in his bed instead of just outside the fence, watching his son execute his lieutenant, then he realized it had just been a dream.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the horrible images of Wash crumbling lifeless to the ground, the commander got up and reached for his clothes, quickly pulling them on again.

A glance at his watch told him that it was just after four am, meaning they wouldn´t leave for the portal for another six hours.

Unsurprisingly there was light in the windows of the small house next to his, he hadn´t expected his second to be asleep, they had had another heated discussion about her not wanting to stay behind right before she had stormed out of command, claiming to be scheduled for midnight patrol.

Taylor hadn´t held her back, determined to force her into accepting his choice, firmly believing it was for the best, that she would be safe, that he could avoid risking her life out there.

Wash opened the door at his first knock, locking alarmed at the sight of him.

"Sir?"

"I need to talk to you- can I come in?"

She stepped aside wordlessly, then closed the door behind him and turned while Taylor watched her intently, the dream had shaken him severely and he still hadn´t recovered from it.

His lieutenant had obviously at least been planning to sleep, she was wearing a loose pair of sweatpants and a black tank, her glossy dark hair flowing down her back in waves.

"You´re coming with me."

He told her briskly, watching her eyes widen in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"You´re coming with me, to the portal- I´m putting Guz in charge of the colony instead."

She just stared at him for a moment, then her eyes narrowed suspiciously and her posture changed as she tensed.

"And what exactly made you change your mind all of a sudden? You seemed very determined earlier, Sir."

Adding his title to soften her insubordinate tone, something she often did, though only when they were alone and as usual, Nathaniel let it go, his relationship with Wash wasn´t simply professional, she was important to him as a person, his best friend- more, if he was honest with himself, a luxury he rarely indulged in, she was his second in command and fantasying about her as a woman wouldn´t get him anywhere.

Realizing that he still hadn´t answered her question, Taylor leaned back against her kitchen counter, shrugging.

"Not forbidden to change my mind from time to time, is it, Wash."

She nodded, smiling mockingly.

"`Course not, Sir, it´s just that you´ve never done it before, so I´m curious what brought this one on."

"Just grin and bear it, Lieutenant- I´d recommend you stop pacing and go to bed, not sure when we´ll get a good night´s sleep again."

She pushed away from the door and walked closer to him, all business now.

"Do you think there´s any chance that things will just go as planned?"

"Truth be told, with Lucas vanishing through the portal and Mira telling me how much he´s looking forward to getting revenge on me, chances seem a little slim, don´t you think."

Wash was curling a strand of hair around a finger, something she often did when she tried to figure something out- it was a habit Taylor found both amusing and enchanting, mostly because it was so completely unlikely for her to give away her feelings or emotions like that.

He reached out and caught her hand while she blushed lightly before pulling her hand away and impatiently pulling her hair back into a ponytail, securing it with a hair tie she had been wearing around her wrist.

"Do you have a plan?"

She asked and Taylor sighed, about to run his hand through his hair in frustration when he noticed the amused twinkle in her eyes, the irony of stopping her from indulging in her nervous tick just to go on and employ his own not lost on him.

"I have a whole arsenal of plans, Lieutenant, unfortunately I have no idea what Lucas might be planing, so I can´t say if one of them might be useful."

Out of impulse he reached for her and brought his arms around her waist, feeling her stiffen momentarily and then relax into his embrace, her head coming to rest against his shoulder.

He couldn´t really remember when he had held her for the last time, he usually restrained himself from taking liberties like that with her, it was hard enough to keep his feelings for her under control without touching her more often than necessary.

"Are you sure you´re all right?"

She was worried about him, it was easily audible in her voice and Taylor loosened his grip on her, feeling strangely deprived when she stepped back, ending the body contact between them.

"I´m fine, Wash."

Her expression told him that she didn´t believe him but apparently she decided to let it go for now.

He made his way over to the door, his hand briefly clasping her shoulder when he passed her.

"Try and get some sleep, it´s almost dawn already."

"I will- goodnight, Sir."

"Night, Wash."

She closed the door behind him and Taylor briefly considered to actually go back to bed, then decided that he probably wouldn´t manage to go back to sleep anyway, not with the images from his dream still haunting him.

Instead he made his way over to the gate where he knew Guzman to be on night watch.

He found his third in command by the gate and motioned for him to follow him out of earshot of the guards on duty.

"Can I do anything for you, Sir?"

"Yes- I´m putting you in charge of the colony until I come back from the portal."

Guzman raised an eyebrow at him.

"With all due respect, Sir, didn´t you spend the last few days fighting with Wash because she wanted to go and you wanted her to stay behind?"

"I did."

"She didn´t manage to persuade you, did she?"

"It´s not unheard of, Guz."

Taylor tried to make light of the situation but Guzman wasn´t fooled.

"I find it hard to believe that, Sir."

"And what´s that?"

Taylor asked testily, watching with some amusement as Guzman squirmed, trying to find a plausible answer and finally deciding to just be honest with his CO.

"You wanted to leave her here because you think it´s safer."

It was a statement, not a question.

"What makes you think that?"

Guzman shrugged, now clearly uneasy.

"Permission to pass that one up, Sir?"

"Denied."

"Fine- I´m not blind, Sir, I´ve been working in close proximity with you two for over a decade now and I know that you´d be prepared to do whatever it takes to keep her out of harm´s way, no matter how many times you have to pull rank on her or how angry she will get."

"Better angry than dead" Taylor mumbled, causing Guzman to smile halfheartedly.

"I agree with that- so what made you change your mind?"

Taylor hesitated, then shrugged.

"It´s silly, really- I had a dream- well, not a dream, a nightmare."

"About Wash?"

"She died."

Talking about it somehow made it more real again and Taylor drew a deep breath to calm himself, then looked up in surprise when he felt Guzman´s hand on his shoulder.

"It´s all right, Sir, we all worry about the people we love."

After a long moment Taylor simply nodded at his lieutenant, accepting that Guzman knew more than he was supposed to.

"Does she know?"

The younger man finally asked.

"She doesn´t and I plan on keeping it that way."

"She feels the same way about you."

Taylor chuckled darkly, not quite believing that he was having this conversation- well, if he had to had it, Guzman definitely was the best person around to have it with.

"That´s a bit ridiculous, don´t you think, Guz? Have you looked at the girl?"

"Believe me, I have, unfortunately never noticed, she was too busy staring at the boss- permission to go back to my post, Sir?"

"Dismissed, Lieutenant" Taylor automatically replied and Guzman winked at the commander, then saluted smartly and walked back to his men waiting by the gate.

The commander slowly made his way up into his office, it was almost six by now, no use to go back home, he´d try and work a bit, then get some breakfast from the market once it opened and go home to prepare to leave for the portal.


	2. Chapter 2

**metube:** I´m really feeling bad about Guzman, seems I can´t stop having him falling for Wash without her even noticing... Thank you so much and, like always, I´m sorry it took so long to update...

**nonchalantnevis:** Sorry you had to wait so long- I have a thing for writing AU stories and this is a scenario that hasn´t been explored so far, I´ll try and keep it interesting, thank you for commentating!

**morningsunshines:** Thank you :D

**MissCallaLily:** Lol, thank YOU, I´m so sorry it took so long, here´s the next part- finally...

* * *

Alicia Washington entered her CO´s office at six o´clock sharp, hoping she looked more awake than she felt.

After Taylor had had interrupted her pacing two hours ago and told her without any further explanation that he had changed his mind, Wash had actually tried to sleep a little but failed miserably, instead she had spend the next hour pondering what might have happened to convince her CO to take her with him after all.

She hadn´t come to a conclusion and finally had given up and instead started to pack a few things she might need should they spend more than just a few hours OTG.

"Good morning, Sir" she greeted, putting a cup of coffee onto Taylor´s desk.

"Hey Wash, you´re up early."

"All dressed up and somewhere to go, Sir."

Taylor laughed, reaching for the coffee and getting up from his chair.

"All right, Lieutenant, let´s get the show on the road."

"You talked to Guz already?"

"I did, no protests there."

"He´s probably not too upset to be staying close to Tasha."

"That might be right, you´re sure you want to come? Shannon will be there."

Smiling lightly at the thought of her friend, Wash shook her head.

"You have to do better than that, Sir, I´m still coming, annoying cop or not."

She followed Taylor over to the gate where several members of her unit were loading a couple of rhinos with supplies.

"Reynolds, how´s it going?"

Taylor addressed the young corporal.

"Almost finished, Sir."

"Good- I´ll try and find something for breakfast now, you coming, Wash?"

Mark was looking from the commander to the lieutenant and back again.

"Are you going to come with us, Ma´am?"

Carefully arranging her face into a stern expression, Wash looked her corporal upside down, though she supposed Mark knew her better than to take her too seriously.

The young man was her favorite and no matter how hard she tried to conceal it, at times she couldn´t help but let her affection show.

"Thought you could slack off out there, Reynolds?"

"No, Ma´am."

The young man smiled at her, then nodded to Taylor before walking back over to his comrades while Wash followed the commander over to the market.

"You just made his day, Wash."

"Not so sure about that, Sir, I think he was looking forward to a few hours without me breathing down his neck."

"Nonsense, the kid loves you, they all do and you know it."

"Well, I´ll take your word for it, let´s hope they won´t get killed."

Taylor turned back towards her and handed her a piece of fruit.

"Gotta think positive, Wash, it´ll be fine."

"Going soft on me, aren´t you- what on earth happened tonight?"

"Nothing, I realized that you were right and that I need you to be out there with me."

"All right, if you don´t want to tell me you don´t have to- whatever it was, I´m glad it happened."

Taylor looked at thought he could have done without it, whatever it had been and Wash was getting more and more curious, on the other hand if he didn´t want to talk about it she wouldn´t be able to make him, he probably would tell her in his own good time.

After finishing their breakfast they checked in with Malcolm and then with Guzman, finally arriving back at the gate where everyone was packed and ready to roll out, Wash noticed Elisabeth Shannon talking to Zoe who looked close to tears and Reynolds who was holding Maddy in his arms, both of them looking uncharacteristically sober.

Wash paused, causing Taylor to stop also and turn around to her.

"Is everything all right, Lieutenant?"

"Fine, Sir."

She replied hastily, the slight narrowing of his eyes telling her that he wasn´t buying it.

"I was thinking that if you hadn´t changed your mind, we´d be here like that now" she admitted reluctantly, irritated when the commander chuckled.

"What´s so funny?"

"Like that?"

He nodded towards Mark and Maddy who were now kissing and Wash felt herself blush.

"Well, maybe not exactly like that."

Jim Shannon walked up to them, frowning when he caught sight of his daughter and the young Corporal.

"How long have they been- never mind" he added, resolutely turning his back on the young couple.

"Is everything ready?"

He asked Taylor who nodded, checking his watch.

"We´re good to go- Wash, you´re with me, Shannon, you and your wife can ride with Reynolds, just don´t give him a bad time about your girl."

The other man looked puzzled, looking from Taylor to Wash and back again.

"Wait- since when are you coming with us, Wash?"

Wash looked at Taylor expectantly, not surprised when the commander looked uncomfortable.

"Realized I couldn´t do without her after all- let´s get going, we´re already later than planned."

He walked towards his rover, leaving Wash alone with Shannon who looked after the commander with a slight frown on his face.

"What on earth was all that about?"

"I have no idea, he banged at my front door at four in the morning and informed me that he was leaving Guz in charge instead of me."

"Weird- well, I guess we should be going."

He walked towards Reynolds and Maddy who had stopped kissing and were now standing next to each other, Maddy looking teary, Mark determined.

Wash hurried after her CO who was talking to Guzman next to a rover, when she approached them the commander climbed into the driver´s seat, leaving his lieutenants alone next to the vehicle.

"So don´t do anything I wouldn´t do" Wash joked, smiling when Guzman laughed.

"Likewise, Wash- don´t get hurt and keep Taylor out of harm´s way."

"I´ll do my best, you keep out of trouble and keep an eye on the Shannon´s kids, ok?"

"Sure, I´ll do that."

He hugged Wash tightly, then stepped back while she rounded the vehicle and climbed into the passenger´s seat.

"Anything I should know about?"

Taylor asked, nodding towards Guzman and Wash rolled her eyes.

"How long have you known me?"

"Eighteen years now, why?"

"And how long have you known Guz?"

"A decade?"

"Exactly."

She leaned back in her seat, not thinking it necessary to say anything else, she liked Guzman, they were friends but he was so not her type it was ridiculous to even think about him as anything else.

She watched Taylor as he began stirring the rover out of the gate, wondering if he seriously considered she might be interested in Guzman, if he could actually be so oblivious to the fact that he was the only man she had been looking at in years.

He probably was, now that she thought of it, she was almost twenty years younger than him and his wife had invited her to dinner or brunch sometimes when they had been at base, she had taken a liking to the younger woman and thought that she shouldn´t spend too much time on her own while most of her comrades were with their families.

Her CO most likely saw her as some sort of cross between a younger sister and a substitute daughter.

"Wash?"

She looked over at him, realizing that he must have asked her something and she had been too lost in thought to listen.

"I´m sorry, Sir, what did you say?"

"Just wanted to fill you in on what I told the others during the briefing yesterday, if anything goes wrong, everyone is supposed to get to safety as quickly as possible, no waiting up for others, no attempt on rescue the civilians, if they manage to take the portal the colony will be in immediate danger and we´ll be the only ones aware of it."

Wash bit her lip, she knew of course that he was right but she didn´t like it all the same, especially since there would be people she really cared about out there with them, the Shannons and then of course all members of her own unit, including Mark Reynolds.

"Wash?"

"Yes, Sir, of course."

"I don´t like it anymore than you do, let´s just hope we´re paranoid."

Taylor was sounding tense and Wash couldn´t blame him, they had known for a while that their idyllic new world wasn´t exactly paradise after all but apparently they hadn´t been as well prepared to really accept it as they had thought.

They arrived at the portal shortly before noon and Riley walked up to them, a smile forming on her face at the sight of Wash.

"Sir, Lieutenant."

The commander nodded at the young woman before joining Jim Shannon who was standing close to the portal now while Wash turned to her sergeant.

"I wasn´t aware that you´d be coming out here, Ma´am, I thought it was either you or the commander."

"Late change of plans- all quiet here?"

"Nothing unusual- do you think everything will go as planned?"

"I hope so, I´m afraid chances are slim though."

Riley nodded, looking uncomfortable.

"I heard we´re all to try and save ourselves if something happens."

"That´s the commander´s orders, Riley and I want you to stick to them."

"Yes, Ma´am."

Wash joined her CO and the Shannons in front of the portal, checking her watch.

"It´s almost time."

_The explosion shook the ground and Taylor acted out of pure instinct and completely against his own orders when he crashed into Wash, taking her down with him and rolling on top of her, shielding her with his own body._

_She began struggling moments later and Taylor pulled her up again, giving her a moment´s head start before following her at a flat out run into the undergrowth._

_The uproar behind them told him that a large number of enemies were invading the small clearing and he kept running, realizing that he needed to join his lieutenant more often in her perimeter runs, he was struggling to keep up with her._

_Finally they reached the river and Wash wordlessly began climbing down the cliffs, waiting for Taylor near the water´s edge._

_"Shit" she cursed, impatiently pulling her hair tie out and resolutely combing her fingers through her hair before fixing it into a fresh ponytail._

_"I agree" Taylor muttered darkly, then pulled out his comm._

_"Riley, you copy?"_

_"Copy, Sir- where are you?"_

_"Headed towards meeting point twenty six, see you there."_

_"All right, Sir."_

_He disconnected, he didn´t want to talk longer or be more explicit for fear that someone might be hacking into their frequency and when he looked up it was to find Wash staring at her own comm, her face ashen._

_"What happened?"_

_She looked up._

_"They opened a portal just outside the gate, Guz surrendered, they took his comm link from him right after I had reached them."_

_Taylor felt his legs give way and sank down onto a boulder, reaching out for Wash´s arm and pulling her down onto his lap._

_"Sir?"_

_She sounded puzzled but right at that moment he didn´t really care about propriety, he hadn´t felt so bad since Somalia and holding Wash to him as tightly as he could was the only thing he could think of that could calm him right now._

_"Just give me a moment" he muttered, burying his face in her hair and deeply inhaling the familiar scent of her shampoo, feeling better at once._

_"You broke your own rule, Sir" she told him, gently combing her fingers through her hair while holding perfectly still in his embrace, "I believe you said something about saving ourselves at all costs."_

_"I was, what good would I be out here without you, I´d probably manage to get myself bleeding in no time and you wouldn´t be here to stitch me up."_

_"Not funny, Sir" she huffed, pulling back slightly to look at him, "now you mention it, are you injured?"_

_"Nothing I´m aware of."_

_She chuckled softly, shaking her head._

_"Not good enough, Sir, let me up so I can check you over."_

_Taylor let her go reluctantly and Wash gracefully got to her feet, proceeding to thoroughly check him for injuries until she was satisfied that he was unharmed._

_"All right, you´re not inured, that was a stupid thing to do, anyway."_

_Taylor didn´t bother to call her on her insubordination, they were sitting in the middle of a prehistorical jungle and humanity had just ruined it´s second and probably last chance, what did it matter if his lieutenant spoke her mind, she was right after all, he had endangered himself to keep the woman he loved from harm and it had been unprofessional and idiotic but he was glad he´d done it, anyway._

_"We should go, Riley will be there before us."_

_While they walked, Wash contacted Reynolds and Taylor could tell that she was incredibly relieved when her Corporal told her that he was unharmed and on his way to the designated meeting point in a rhino._

_"I hope they managed to save a few more vehicles, we´ll need them" Taylor mused, following Wash as she made her way along the river, looking for a few boulders large enough to hold their weight so they could cross the water._

_"We´ll have to deal with what we have, at least everybody will have their weapons on them."_

_After they were on the other side of the river they began to climb the cliffs again, Wash leading the way, carefully picking a route that would support Taylor´s greater weight as well and soon they reached the ledge and made their way into the jungle once more._

_"I hope Guz will be ok" Wash sighed, sounding uncharacteristically subdued, "I´ll never forgive myself if something happens to him."_

_Taylor reached for her arm and she turned to him, her expression troubled._

_"It´s not your fault, Wash."_

_"It is, if I hadn´t been so whiney and just accepted that as your second I was supposed to stay at the colony in your place, he wouldn´t be there right now-"_

_"Alicia."_

_The sound of her given name made her relax a little, he didn´t use it often, only if he wanted to make a point, to emphasize something important._

_"Nothing you said would have made me change my mind, I wanted to keep you safe and I thought the colony would be the place to do that, so stop beating yourself up, I need you at your best, not full of regrets and distracted."_

_She nodded heavily._

_"Yes, Sir."_

_They finally reached their meeting point and found Riley and a dozen other soldiers already there, along with four of their rhinos._

_"You two look like hell, what happened?"_

_Riley looked worried as the commander and his second emerged from the trees._

_"We stood too close to the portal, didn´t have time to grab a vehicle and had to get here on foot" Wash explained, then she looked around._

_"What happened to the Shannons?"_

_"Reynolds says they are both alive, Shannon is unconscious, the Doc looked unharmed but those soldiers took them, I couldn´t reach Guzman, what happened to the colony?"_

_"Guz had to surrender" Wash replied, "they opened a portal right next to the gate and started throwing grenades."_

_"Shit"Riley hissed, then looked back at them apologetically._

_"Sorry."_

_Taylor shrugged._

_"Don´t mind us, your reaction matched your CO´s perfectly."_

_He grinned at Wash who glared back at him half heartedly, then they all turned around as the sound of more vehicles approaching sounded around the clearing._

_Reynolds jumped out of the first one, motioning for the drivers of the other two to do the same before he saluted his commanding officers._

_"Sir, Ma´am, I´ve got twenty three men with me, no one got injured."_

_"Good job, Reynolds" Taylor told the young man, "I hear you know more about what happened at the portal."_

_Reynolds opened his mouth to reply but Wash interrupted._

_"I´m sorry to interrupt, Sir but we should hurry and set up some sort of defense, it´ll get dark in two hours and this is Carno territory."_

_"Right like always, Lieutenant- everybody, listen up."_

_He called and the assembled soldiers turned towards them._

_"Go and get wood that can be used as poles, Lieutenant Washington just made me aware that we are in the middle of Carno territory and that we should set up a defense as soon as possible."_

_While they worked Mark filled them in on what had happened before he and the remaining men had been forced to leave and the report didn´t exactly improve Taylor´s mood._

_"Thirty and counting you say? Who knows how more men they have at Terra Nova- we´re up to what now, thirty something?"_

_"A little over forty, Sir" Wash joined them, looking concerned._

_Before Taylor could say anything screams erupted around them and Taylor tore after Wash and Reynolds, powering up his weapon._

_They found a group of their soldiers fighting off a Carnotaurus and Taylor and Reynolds joined them while Wash crouched down next to one of her privates, a young man named Gonzalez._

_"Someone get me a med kit, now!"_

_Hearing her sound so desperate made Taylor´s heart ache, Wash took loosing people at least as hard as he did, especially when she personally failed to save them despite her talent as a medic._

_The Carno finally seemed to have enough and turned to leave just as someone pressed a med kit into the lieutenant´s hand._

_Taylor remained next to her and watched her work at a feverish pace, blood staining her hands as she stitched up a large gash in the young soldiers upper thigh, in the meantime the others had finished with the barricade and began erecting a few tents that had been stored in the rhinos._

_"Sir?"_

_Taylor looked up to see Reynolds approaching them._

_"Do you think it´s safe to light a few fires around the camp?"_

_Turning to his lieutenant who by now had finished and was carefully wrapping the wound, Taylor asked for her opinion._

_"I´m not sure, Sir, I doubt that those foreign soldiers would dare coming out here at night but if Mira is in on this they might look for us and fire would give us away then- on the other hand, if the Carno comes back and only a few guards are there to deal with it we might be better off dealing with the Sixers."_

_"You´re right, we´ll risk the fire- Reynolds, help me carry Gonzalez to the tents."_

_By the time they had settled him onto a sleeping bag the private was conscious again and Wash injected him with a generous dose of painkillers before telling him to try and go to sleep, she was looking worried and told Taylor that she wasn´t sure if Gonzalez would make it through the night, if they had been back at the colony they could have given him fresh blood and made sure that the leg didn´t get infected, out there they would have to wait and hope for the best._

_"He´s lucky you´re here, Wash, he´d be dead already otherwise."_

_She shrugged, cleaning her hands with a wet towel._

_"Only doing my job, Sir- do we have enough rations? If we have to hunt we should do it now before it gets completely dark."_

_"Rations will hold till tomorrow, let´s organize shifts and then try and get some shut eye."_

_The fires were lit by now and Taylor walked the makeshift perimeter, talking to his soldiers and finally he arrived back at the tents were Wash was instructing Riley who would take first watch._

_"How many tents do we have?"_

_Taylor asked, coming to stand next to his lieutenant._

_"Seven, Sir- we have only four women out here, so one tent will be fine, the guys can decide who wants to share with whom."_

_"Four excluding you?"_

_"Yes, Sir."_

_It was an unspoken agreement that they would share a tent, they had done so for months while building the colony and it made sense, the soldiers wouldn´t feel comfortable with either the commander or the lieutenant and their leaders would have time and privacy to work out strategies and plan their next movements without being disturbed._

_Wash dismissed Riley and Taylor led the way over to their small tent, letting Wash enter it first before following her._

_"Cozy" Wash commented dryly and Taylor chuckled, his lieutenant´s sarcasm never failed to amuse him, no matter how serious the situation might be._

_"Sorry about that, Wash, next time I´ll take you to a five star resort."_

_"You´re planning to built one?"_

_Wash began to unfold a sleeping bag and spread it out on the ground before pulling her body armor off and letting it fall to the ground, her leather jacket and boots followed and Taylor tried hard not to stare as she pulled her hair tie out and shook out the long dark locks._

_She didn´t seem to notice but sat down on the sleeping bag, crossing her legs._

_"Are we going to do something or are we waiting to see what will happen?"_

_Taylor began pulling off his own jacket and armor, then toed off his boots before putting his own sleeping bag down next to Wash´s._

_"I don´t really know what we could do, we have no idea what we are dealing with."_

_Wash frowned, she didn´t like his answer anymore than he did himself._

_"I hate this, we can´t just stay here and let them ruin everything, it´s-"_

_Her voice trailed away and Taylor sighed, sitting down on his own sleeping bag._

_"Unfair?"_

_"Yeah, it is unfair, why didn´t Hope Plaza stop them, they must have noticed that they were sending an army through the portal- do you think they´re in on this?"_

_Taylor had already considered that option and the longer he thought about it, the more likely it became._

_Wash was studying his expression and nodded thoughtfully._

_"You think so, too, don´t you."_

_"It seems likely- if that´s true they only send us back here to built their base camp for them."_

_"We can´t let them get through with it" Wash´s voice was determined now and Taylor agreed with her, they wouldn´t be played like that, they had lost too much already._


End file.
